Karos/Newest
__FORCETOC____NOEDITSECTION____NOWYSIWYG__ |death=c. 4999 BBY |species=Sith-Human hybrid |gender=Male |height=1.87 standard meters |mass=85 standard kilograms |hair=Raven |eyes=Crimson |skin=Maroon |cyber=Sith regenerator |era=*Old Republic era *Rise of the Empire era *Rebellion era *New Republic era *New Jedi Order era *Legacy era |affiliation=*Sith Empire *Ninûshwodzakut *Châtsûshnwûlkut Tsisottoi Shikkarûjontû *Sith stealth regiment *Veeshas Tuwan *Kohortwotok Wishastuwan *Ludo Kressh's faction *Sith invasion fleet *Tsistaralkut *Sith exodus fleet *Vitiate's Sith Empire *Order of Karos *Sorcerers of Tund *Revanchists *Revan's Sith Empire *Ancient Order of the Whills *Assorted Dark Jedi and Light Sith factions |caste=Kissai }} |masters=*Tritos Nal *Garu *Ergast *Komok-Da *Saes Rrogon *Sorzus Syn *Mishridz *Assorted Kissai priests and Sith Masters |apprentices=*Mishridz *Kasidzostina *Nakantos *Order of Karos *Neema Sunrider *Assorted Sith Acolytes and Dark Jedi}} Karos (/'kɑː.roʊs/ ''KAH-rohs'') was a male half-breed Kissai and anointed Sith Lord of the old Sith Empire from Kaniset on Korriban active during the Golden Age of the Sith. Apart from his noteworthy academic career as a philosopher of the Force and Sith sorcerer, Karos was best remembered for assembling the Tsistaralkut resistance movement during the post–Great Hyperspace War counterinvasion, rescuing Sith-blooded refugees from the war-torn Sith Worlds and resettling them on outlying colonies.''Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds'', p. 139 He met his end during the third battle of Korriban, sacrificially giving his life to assist acting Dark Lord Shar Dakhan in expelling the Republic Military from the Horuset system.''The Essential Atlas'', p. 128 He continued to manifest as a Force ghost for millennia after his death. Karos was widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars of the Force and most prolific academics of the post–Hundred-Year Darkness period.''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. xviii He was best known for his articulation and codification of the Dzwolutwokun philosophy, a monist Unifying Force offshoot philosophy preserved in the pages of the Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat that stated that light and dark side alignment were characteristics of Force users rather than the Force itself. He was also notable for the Qotaral, a divisive work of political philosophy that was critical of the kratocratic individualism that characterized prevailing Tsisajak ("Sith doctrine" "E-mail from Ben Grossblatt on the Code of the Sith") and instead sought to propose a collectivist alternative form of government for the Empire. Though his early Force-based academic work focused exclusively on the traditional Kissai discipline of Sith magic, his subsequent work was significantly wider-ranging in scope, encompassing the study of arcane rituals of both the light and dark sides of the Force and fields as diverse as Sith alchemy and necromancy. In addition to his own body of work, constituting a library's worth of tomes and treatises, he coauthored a significant number of seminal academic texts in collaboration with theorists from other traditions during his tenure in residence at the Veeshas Tuwan, a city-sized library-temple on Arkania widely acknowledged as the largest repository of Sith writings and artifacts in the old Sith Empire. ''Tales of the Jedi Companion'', p. 131 Apart from his prodigious academic career, Karos was remembered for his participation in the Great Hyperspace War and the Republic counterinvasion that followed. Though he initially avoided formally involving himself in the Sadow-Kressh succession dispute that followed Ragnos's death due to his dissatisfaction with both candidates' political platforms, Karos grudgingly answered elected Dark Lord Naga Sadow's call to join the invasion fleet in the lead-up to the Great Hyperspace War. Assigned to the Sith personnel carrier Forth From Perdition as the commanding officer of a group of Sith sorcerers, Karos notably participated in the Battle of Coruscant and the first and second battles of Korriban. In the subsequent Republic counterinvasion, Karos watched as the Empire crumbled due to internal conflict, disease, famine, and ritual mass-suicides. Fearing that the invaders intended to systematically exterminate the Sith species,''The Old Republic: Revan'' Karos assembled the Tsistaralkut, a paramilitary resistance movement that rescued and resettled Sith-blooded refugees on Ambria, Thule, Tund,''The Essential Atlas'', p. 110 Vjun, and other outlying colonies far from the chaos engulfing the Stygian Caldera. Despite overseeing a string of successful evacuations, Karos and the better part of the Tsistaralkut met their end during the third battle of Korriban, self-sacrificially giving their lives to help acting Dark Lord Shar Dakhan, Naga Sadow's lieutenant,''The Essential Guide to Warfare'', p. 35 drive Republic forces out of the Horuset system. The sacrifices of the Tsistaralkut ultimately led to the birth of notable Sith states like the Sorcerers of Tund and reconstituted Sith Empire. In the millennia following his death, Karos continued to manifest as a powerful Force ghost protecting the Sith remnant on Korriban''Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide'', p. 119 by means of Sith necromancy and legions of reanimated corpses.''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 43 Though his spirit primarily resided within the confines of his tomb, he occasionally applied his mastery of essence transfer to the possession of host bodies, shuttling his consciousness through a series of unwitting temporary vessels whenever the mood to wander the galaxy and study with other Forceful traditions took hold. A native of the city of Kaniset on the Sith species's ancestral homeworld of Korriban, ''Jedi Academy Training Manual'', p. 159 Sith-Human hybrid known as Karos was the outcome of an illicit affair between a visiting Sith Lord and a Kissai priestess. Though the exact date of his birth was the subject of speculation by later historians, Karos was known to have been born sometime after the death of Dark Lord Tulak Hord and prior to the ascension of Dark Lord Marka Ragnos to the rulership of the Sith Empire as its presiding ''Jen'ari'' ("Dark Lord" ). Like his contemporaries Ludo Kressh and Naga Sadow,''Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 3: The Fabric of an Empire'' Karos was old enough in 5100 BBY to recall firsthand the details of Ragnos's brief and brutal campaign of conquest over the Sith Empire''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. 162''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 69 and the final duel between Ragnos and Simus that decided the victor of the war of succession and heralded the dawn of the Golden Age of the Sith. Despite being a member of the Kissai caste and associated Sith subspecies,''Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide'', p. 15 Karos was primarily of Human blood. He was mainly descended from the Tapani refugees of House Nidantha who had wandered into the Empire in the aftermath of the Unification War''Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pandemonium''''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 35 and subsequently interbred with their Sith masters over centuries. Additionally, like many of his Sith-blooded contemporaries,''Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia'', p. 109''Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia'', p. 147 Karos was a descendant of those Human Dark Jedi Exiles who had chosen to mate with the Sith''Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia'', p. 15 in the years following the formation of the Sith Empire in 6900 BBY.''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. 12''The New Essential Chronology'', p. 7 Karos himself could claim patrilineal descent from the ''Jen'jidai'' Baron Remulus Dreypa and his alleged Kissai lover.''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 19 Despite his high Human blood, he possessed the Sith species's strong Force sensitivity and a natural affinity for the dark side.''Tales of the Jedi Companion'', p. 78''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 27 As a member of the Kissai priest caste, Karos was immersed in that caste's traditional study of dark side Sith magic and Sith alchemy''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 29''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 36 from an early age. Possessed of an above-average connection to the Force coupled with an inexorable thirst for knowledge and desire to understand the Force at its most essential level, Karos spent much of his youth prior to his formal ordination into the Kissai priesthood traversing the red wastes of Korriban to take up residence at a multiplicity of Sith Temples and library-temples. His travels saw him wander locations as diverse and remote as the Sanctum of Sakkra-Kla and the Valley of Golg in his search for obscure knowledge and philosophical enlightenment. Never content to remain in one place for too long, he eschewed participation in the power games of his Sith Lord superiors in favor of apprenticeship to masters of many different traditions. From an early age, Karos readily distinguished himself from his peers for his intuitive grasp of such fundamental rituals of Sith magic as ''Dwomutsiqsa'', ''Sutta Chwituskak'',''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 42 and ''Odojinya''. However, his greatest skill lay in his burgeoning affinity for powers related to mental manipulation, ranging from conventional mind tricks to more advanced ''Qâzoi Kyantuska'' incantations used to bind and enslave multiple minds at will. This nascent talent, coupled with his facility for meditation trances, rendered him positively predisposed towards the mastery of battle meditation. A decidedly rare Force ability manifested in a select few''Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War 1: Edge of the Whirlwind'' and mastered only by such Forceful prodigies as Naga Sadow, battle meditation could be used to fundamentally alter the course of a battle by inspiring friendly forces to push for victory while sowing horrible visions of defeat in the minds of opponents. Karos's nascent skill in this ability made him a valuable asset to those Sith Lords to whom he sought to apprentice himself and earned him entry into the priesthoods of many Korribanian library-temples of note. Despite its hallowed status as the birthplace of the Sith species, Korriban had long since been replaced by the Sith Empire's capital world of Ziost''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. 159''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 18 as the beating heart of the Empire. The vast majority of the Sith population resided on Ziost and the other one hundred and twenty planets of the Stygian Caldera''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. 161 that constituted the Sith Worlds. Despite the wealth of knowledge he had acquired from his time on Korriban, it was not long before Karos turned his eyes upwards from the dusty trails of his homeworld to the stars and began pondering the possibility of studying abroad in the greater Sith Empire among scholars of many different traditions and schools of thought. Eventually, Karos's desire to learn more about the mysteries of the Force compelled him to depart his homeworld to tour the greater Sith Empire and study at the feet of noted scholars and academics of the Force. His wanderings took him across the breadth of the Empire and saw him apprentice himself to Sith Lords of a hundred different factions and levels of influence. Karos's prodigious talent as a Sith sorcerer, growing skill in battle meditation, lack of personal ambition, and indifference to the power games of the Sith readily ingratiated him into the ranks and good graces of many high-ranking Sith Lords of the Empire, granting him easy access to many highly-placed and influential individuals in the Imperial hierarchy. Though never a power player in his own right, Karos saw frequent employment as a consigliere and right-hand man to members of the Sith nobility, leveraging his unbiased counsel and potent Force abilities in exchange for the knowledge and instruction in arcane Force techniques. Though primarily a Sith sorcerer by specialty, Karos made an effort to expand upon his rudimentary knowledge of Sith alchemy during his time abroad. His study of this applied science of Sith magic included the sub-disciplines of Sith poisoncraft''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 65 and Force imbuement,''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 40 the latter of which he studied in detail on Korriz in the court of Sith Lord Tritos Nal.''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 155 Considered by some Sith to be a less intensive facet of alchemy suitable for study by apprentices, Force imbuement was commonly used by the Sith as the means by which corporeal objects like Sith swords and bronzium armor could be enhanced and strengthened beyond their base properties through the imbuement of Force into the atomic substructure of the objects in question.''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. 174 Under Nal's expert tutelage, Karos developed a proficiency in this sub-discipline, applying his knowledge of meditative trances to the imbuement process in a manner not unlike that used in millennia prior by the Jedi in the development of their Force-imbued katanas.''The Essential Guide to Warfare'', p. 15 Among other facets of Sith alchemy, Karos likewise showed particular promise in the design and development of Sithspawn, living manifestations of dark-sided bioengineering. His subsequent studies in the development of Sithspawn took him across the Stygian Caldera and saw him undertake experiments in the selective breeding of creatures as diverse as the Rhak-skuri of Upekzar''Fate of the Jedi: Ascension'' and the Silooths of Kalsunor.''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 120 His work in the field of Sithspawn engineering eventually brought him to the attention of the Ninûshwodzakut, an exclusive group of Kissai alchemists specializing in the creation of Sithspawn. He remained apprenticed to this group for some time, continuing to contribute to their academic work even after moving on to other worlds in later years. His knowledge of Sithspawn breeding as taught by the Ninûshwodzakut proved invaluable in later years in his subsequent studies of Sith necromancy, a niche field that combined the incantations of Sith magic with conventional Sith alchemical techniques governing the creation of Sithspawn. In addition to his pursuit of Force-based academic scholarship, Karos also pursued a number of more tangible Force-mediated fields of study during his time abroad, including swordsmanship, conventional military strategy, and espionage. To this end, he frequently apprenticed himself to noted warriors and weapon specialists of the main Sith traditions. Foremost among these was the Sith academic Komok-Da,''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 66''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. 175 a warrior-scholar who awoke in Karos an interest in the Sith lightsaber. Though the Tapani slaves of the Sith Lords had long since improved upon and perfected the protosaber design''Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon'', p. 10 initially brought to the Sith Worlds by the Dark Jedi Exiles,''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 11''Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia'', p. 108 use of the modern Sith lightsaber was still uncommon due to prevailing preference for the Force-imbued Sith sword. The only known Dark Lord to favor the lightsaber was Tulak Hord, a duelist of unparalleled ability unmatched by the greatest Sith Warriors and Jedi Weapon Masters of later millennia.''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords'' Inspired by tales of Hord's expert swordsmanship, Karos took to studying the Dark Lord's preserved teachings on the subject of lightsaber combat in detail. In later decades, Karos pursued additional instruction in lightsaber combat from fallen Jedi and Naga Sadow supporter Saes Rrogon.''Crosscurrent'' Though development of the Seven Forms of conventional lightsaber combat was still in its infancy,''Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force'', p. 110''Fightsaber: Jedi Lightsaber Combat'' many protosaber-wielding Jedi were trained in the basics of Shii-Cho, a widespread dueling paradigm that came to be known as Form I in later centuries. At Karos's request, Rrogon instructed the Sith in the specifics of the form. Though simple and inelegant in comparison to the more evolved forms that followed it,''The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force'', p. 41 Shii-Cho was nonetheless a brutally efficient approach to lightsaber combat. Karos found that its distinctive fluidity complemented the raw power embraced by the Tulak Hord form. The simultaneous embrace of both techniques allowed the user to gracefully execute powerful, unpredictable attacks while remaining fully in control of the duel's momentum. Over time, Karos's desire for ever greater knowledge led him to venture outside the traditional boundaries of the Empire to more distant, far-flung Sith colonies lying outside the shroud of the Stygian Caldera. First among these outlying worlds visited by Karos was Thule, a dark-sided Force nexus lying immediately outside the vicinity of the Stygian Caldera upon its galactic western flanks. This perpetually overcast planet was the haunt of the several Sith military units and organizations drawn to the planet for its natural concerted power in the dark side and its remote location. Of these, the most notable were a Sith stealth regiment belonging to the Sith Empire military's special forces and the Châtsûshnwûlkut Tsisottoi Shikkarûjontû, a furtive guild of Kissai assassins answering directly to the presiding Dark Lord. Karos's decision to travel abroad outside the Stygian Caldera was ultimately motivated by an invitation issued by the latter group. Having heard of Karos's reputation as a powerful sorcerer and alchemist of the Ninûshwodzakut, the Shikkari offered him a place in their midst as one of the group's resident Sith alchemists. Though not formal members of the group, these ancillary personnel were charged with enhancing the assassins' natural properties through bioengineering, developing their poisons by means of Sith poisoncraft, and imbuing their traditional ''shikkar'' daggers''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 23 with the Force as needed. Karos ultimately accepted the proffered invitation, maintaining a residence in the capital city of Hurom''Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds'', p. 141 within walking distance of the Sith Arts Academy,''Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds'', p. 142 the local Sith Temple, and the Tower of Hurom, the headquarters of the ChTsSh. Over a period of several years, Karos split his time between serving the ChTsSh and training with special forces personnel of the Sith stealth regiment. It was during this time that he met and befriended an assassin by the name of Mishridz, a fellow Kissai from Korriban who became both his greatest friend and closest confidante throughout his life. Under Mishridz's informal tutelage, Karos developed a baseline proficiency in Force stealth, Force mask, and Force conceal, spells that empowered him to avoid being seen in certain settings if he wished. Despite cultivating such skills, Karos ultimately found himself ill-suited to the clandestine subtleties of special reconnaissance and special operations as practiced by the ChTsSh. He cultivated a greater interest in the study of military strategy as applied to irregular warfare, showing particular promise in the planning and undertaking of unconventional warfare operations during his studies under Sith special forces personnel. After a lengthy tenure among the Shikkari, Karos eventually departed Thule for worlds farther afield, most notably the jungle world of Tund. Tied with Arkania as one of the furthest Sith colonies from the beating heart of the Empire, Tund was a verdant Force nexus lost on the northeastern borders of the Open Sea, a vast expanse of uninhabited space lying in the Centrality sector.''The Essential Atlas'', p. 162 Though initially settled by outcast Kissai priests who had interpreted the death of Sith Overlord and king Adas in the 27,700 BBY Rakata invasion of Korriban as a sign to reject the dark side, Tund had eventually come to serve as the principle Sith penal colony in the millennia since the Empire's founding in 6900 BBY. Its residents were heretical thinkers and theorists of many traditions, from proponents of Rakata monism as applied to the Unifying Force to Light Sith who refused to embrace the dark-sided mores of prevailing Sith culture. Though Karos generally only spent a few years at most on any given world before moving on to the next, he mingled among members of these varied factions over the span of several decades, studying unconventional theories of the Force and penning dissertations on arcane Force rituals practiced by the residents of Tund that eventually came to constitute a considerable portion of his Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat anthology. Despite his protected status as a free citizen of the Sith Empire, he found himself readily welcomed by the exiled residents of the planet, many of whom were eager to engage in spirited philosophical discussion with a mainline Sith from the heartland of the Empire. Between its residents' hospitality and the planet's beautiful verdant landscapes, Karos came to consider Tund a second home away from Korriban, leading him to return on multiple occasions in the years that followed. After a brief visit to the sparsely populated colony of Vjun, Karos traveled to the Inner Rim to visit the Empire's westernmost holdings of Ambria and Arkania. After a brief visit to the court of Ambria's overseeing Sith sorceress,''Tales of the Jedi Companion'', p. 130''Power of the Jedi Sourcebook'', p. 145 Karos brought his extensive perambulations to an end on Arkania, a frozen wasteland famously home to the Veeshas Tuwan library-temple. This subterranean complex, sitting on a city-sized campus spanning five square kilometers, was widely considered the foremost repository of Sith writings and artifacts in the Empire, containing so much collated data and compiled lore by the Golden Age of the Sith that locating specific relics of interest was a nearly impossible task. Karos subsequently took up residence at the library-temple among countless other Sith sorcerers, often ending up lost in ceaseless study within the labyrinthine structure for months at a time before finally emerging from its depths to bask in Olim's white sunlight.''Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide'', p. 116 Arkania proved to be an ideal adopted homeworld for Karos—far removed from the tedious power games of the prevailing Sith establishment, the world was mostly populated by similarly minded academics and scholars with whom Karos frequently entered into deep philosophical discourse and concerted study of Force rituals during his decades-spanning tenure. It was within the Veeshas Tuwan's walls that Karos came to achieve complete mastery of a great many rituals of Sith magic and associated sub-disciplines. One such niche field in which Karos specialized was Sith necromancy, a sub-discipline of Sith magic combining Sith alchemy and sorcery. Karos's study of this field began with a perusal of ''Jen'jidai'' Sorzus Syn's titular chroncicle, an account of the Dark Jedi Exiles' earliest days on Korriban. Nestled among discussions of ancient Sith artifacts and observations regarding the unique cultural mores of the Sith people, Syn included copies of a number of Sith language incantations, the most obscure of which was the ''Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut'' incantation. This obscure and complex spell combining Sith magic and Sith alchemy was capable of reanimating corpses into hoyakut, a Sith word meaning "the dead" made in reference to the hordes of mindless Korriban zombie Sithspawn that protected Sith sacred sites like the Valley of Golg and the Valley of the Dark Lords.''Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith'' (audio) Though the subjects of his studies at the Veeshas Tuwan were widely varied in nature, Karos developed a particular interest in the study of post-mortem spiritual transcendence. Per the conventional dark-sided means of achieving continued existence as a Force ghost, a sufficiently powerful Sith Lord could make use of the Transfer essence ability''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 16''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 137 to deny the will of the Force on death, persisting as a disembodied spirit bound to the physical realm by means of a locational focus point''Jedi Academy Training Manual'', p. 118 like a tomb''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 122 or a specially prepared receptacle like a Sith amulet.''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 26 Though such incorporeal spirits could continue to make use of Force powers related to the manipulation of minds''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 123''Power of the Jedi Sourcebook'', p. 84''Hero's Guide'', p. 150 or the possession of host vessels, they were unable to employ Force abilities that directly affected physical objects, just as they could not be affected by such powers themselves. These Sith spirits could only be banished through the destruction of the host vessels or focus points that tethered them to the corporeal plane. Karos was particularly disenchanted with this conventional Sith approach to transcendence, believing that the practice of transferring essence between host vessels and focus points was little more than a cheap means of temporarily avoiding permanent extinction of individuality rather than a true merging of identity with the Force. He sought instead for a means by which personhood could be retained while being completely transferred from the physical realm to the Force without the need for any corporeal crutch. Karos began his search for alternate possibilities with the study of Force ghosts themselves, employing the rituals of Invoke spirits''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 124 and Force walk to summon and bind Sith spirits to his person for firsthand examination of their properties. He learned much from these restless spirits of the limitations inherent in this means of transcending death, particularly of the impermanence endemic to physical focus points susceptible to decay and destruction. As a result, Karos spent many years in search of a better way of melding his identity into the Force, though his studies turned up few promising leads. In the quiet solitude of the Veeshas Tuwan's ''qabbratai''" " and focusing chambers, Karos had much time to reflect back upon all he had seen in his extensive perambulations across the Empire. Particularly inspired by his tenure among the free-thinking population of Tund, his musings on Force-based philosophy took increasingly more concrete form as he began analyzing perceived flaws with prevailing conceptions of the Force as codified in conventional Tsisajak ("Sith doctrine"). Unlike most Sith, Karos forsook the traditional dualist conception of Qyâsik ("the Force") as a binary entity of cleanly demarcated light and dark sides,''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 6 a view commonly taught by the Jedi and inadvertently disseminated to the Sith people by the Exiles at the founding of the Sith Empire. Instead, inspired by the monist Unifying Force teachings of the Rakata that he had encountered among the Sith outcasts of Tund, Karos outlined a monist theory of the Force that came to be known by the Sith language compound word Dzwolutwokun, meaning "the state of existing as only one." Unlike some proponents of the Unifying Force paradigm,''Jedi Academy Training Manual'', p. 40 however, Karos did not go so far as to outright deny the existence of the light and dark sides. Instead, he claimed that the Force alignment spectrum was a characteristic of Force users rather than the Force itself. Applying the analogy of the Sith lightsaber to this theory, Karos likened the Force to a lightsaber's focusing lens used to amplify the output and unique properties of the weapon's crystals in the production of a blade. In a similar fashion, the Force was a means by which the fundamental character and moral fabric of its wielders was augmented, amplified, and revealed. Those of a traditional "light-sided" bent were empowered by the Force to aid and heal others at the expense of the self, while "dark-siders" were granted easy access to powers permitting self-aggrandizement at the expense of others. Though he made no efforts to proselytize or disseminate his views to others, Karos's controversial philosophies eventually came to the attention of the greater population of Sith sorcerers also in residence at the Veeshas Tuwan. Though most dismissed his monist beliefs as unconventional conjecture little different from any another borderline heretical system of thought, a select few shared Karos's sentiments and basic belief system. Many of these began to frequent his private study in the basement of the Veeshas Tuwan and engage in philosophical inquiry on a number of subjects related to the Force. This group's membership grew over time as more sorcerers of varied denominations and traditions began attending the weekly informal debates held in the bowels of the library. Many of those regulars who conformed to Karos's teachings on the subject of the Force adopted the moniker "Karosai" in honor of their instructor, forming the core of Karos's burgeoning informal power base. Patently disinterested in the acquisition of thrones or titles, Karos never went to any efforts to cultivate a power base of followers and servants like those of the Sith Lords and sorcerers alongside whom he studied. However, in addition to the several dozen sorcerers who constituted the membership of the Karosai, Karos was also served and protected by a number of volunteer Massassi veterans of the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan, an elite Massassi kohortwotok ("first cohort") charged with providing security to the Veeshas Tuwan complex. Many of these retired veterans had served Karos for years during his decades-long tenure at the library and had come to respect him for his power in the Force and for the uncommon respect that he, a Forceful member of a higher caste, had shown them. These several dozen Massassi, subsequently nicknamed the "Karossassi" by the Karosai, were storied veterans of a hundred Sith civil conflicts and came to serve as Karos's elite bodyguard unit in the years that followed. With their permission, Karos subsequently amplified their natural abilities through the application of several Sith alchemical enhancements he had perfected during his time among the Ninûshwodzakut, augmenting their already prodigious skill in combat with increased strength and dexterity. Though Marka Ragnos was widely feared and admired in turn for his iron-fisted rule''The New Essential Chronology'', p. 8''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 70 and his part in enriching the Empire during its Golden Age,''The New Essential Guide to Characters'', p. 142 his tenure as Dark Lord saw the Sith Empire engulfed in a crisis.''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 150 After centuries of isolation characterized by minimal outward expansion and widespread internal contention, the Empire had reached the point of stagnation and begun devouring itself from within. Faced with no immediate threats to their regional hegemony and entrenched in solitude far from the greater galactic community, the Empire's governing Sith Lords turned on each other in petty squabbles for meager scraps of power that fractured the Empire into a multitude of disparate factions. Ragnos managed to maintain control over the Empire through the judicious use of coercion and assassination, though he refused to consolidate his hold further and sate the Empire's hunger for new conquests by sanctioning military expeditions abroad. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Ragnos was intimately familiar with the history of the Sith Empire and knew the Sith legends regarding the Republic and Jedi Order''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 152 were based in reality. Ragnos predicted that an imperialist Sith Empire would eventually stumble across the Republic and their Jedi protectors in the vast expanse of uncharted space and feared that the Sith were ill-equipped to face an order of Force users that had handily banished the Dark Jedi Exiles during the Hundred-Year Darkness. Ragnos's rule was increasingly challenged by those who considered his steadfast opposition to external expansion to be a contributing factor in the Empire's continued decay, some of whom attempted to supplant Ragnos by force and deliver the Dark Lordship to a more imperialist candidate. For his part, Ragnos welcomed such claimant conflicts, as they allowed him to identify his foremost opponents for assassination by the Shikkari and kept his detractors occupied with fighting him rather than attempting outward expansion themselves. During his time abroad in the greater Empire, Karos had become intimately familiar with the rising tide of imperialist and expansionist sentiments that had taken hold in the more liberal corners of the Sith establishment during the latter Golden Age. Personified in the figure of Naga Sadow, Sith Lord of the sacred world of Khar Delba, this political movement had become increasingly dissatisfied with Ragnos's isolationist policies and disparaged his century of rule as an era of complacency, stagnation, and decadence. During the last years of Ragnos's reign, Sadow, buoyed up by his burgeoning power base, became increasingly more vocal in his criticisms of the status quo and his interest in expanding the Empire's borders through conquest. The conservative establishment, led by their own rising star in the person of Ludo Kressh,''The Dark Side Sourcebook'', p. 71 were fearful of losing the Dark Lordship to the liberal expansionists, a group whose imperialist ambitions they viewed as dangerously overreaching''Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon'', p. 19 and whose mixed-species and mixed-culture memberbase''Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon'', p. 18 they viewed as an abomination. It was during this period of contention and upheaval that Karos's own thoughts on political philosophy began to take on more concrete form. Though Karos shared his contemporaries' collective ignorance regarding the existence of the Republic and Jedi Order, Karos believed that the Sith Empire in its present form was ill-prepared to combat the looming specter of discovery and invasion by larger empires speculated to exist elsewhere in the unexplored expanse of the galaxy. In particular, he considered the shroud of isolation in which the Empire had wrapped itself since its founding to be the root cause of its own internal decay. Faced with no immediate threats to its regional hegemony and entrenched in solitude far from the greater galactic community, the Sith Empire had turned inward over the span of centuries and begun devouring itself. In the absence of external threats against which to rally together in opposition, the Empire's governing Sith Lords had instead turned on each other, engaging in petty squabbles for meager scraps of power that fractured the Empire into a multitude of disparate factions and parties. Though he agreed to some extent with Sadow's plan to reunite the Empire under the banner of renewed conquest, Karos believed this would amount to little more than a temporary solution to a longstanding problem. In his estimation, the Sith Empire's entire system of government was fundamentally flawed. Karos outlined a renewed political ideology based on social contract theory and collectivism in his seminal work of political philosophy, the Qotaral or "Way of the Protector." In Karos's ideal Empire, both the weak and the strong played different but equally important roles in the drama of state—the duty of the weak was to serve the strong, while the duty of the strong was to protect the weak. Contrary to the kratocratic individualism codified in the Code of the Sith that characterized prevailing Sith culture, the Qotaral instead taught that the collective good of the state was of greater importance than the good of the individual. Adas, the ancient Sith Overlord and king of Korriban who sacrificed his life during the 27,700 BBY Infinite Empire invasion of Korriban to ensure that his people could live free of Rakata oppression, was cited as being the ideal ''Sith'ari'' or "perfect ruler" of the Qotaral's Sith state, a member of the strong who gave his life to protect the weak in the interest of preserving the state. Despite being born a member of the Kissai priest caste, Karos carried himself with a Sith Lord's air, exhibiting both an unmistakable aura of command and a patrician's effortless charm in turn. His quiet confidence and aristocratic bearing often led others to mistakenly conclude that he himself was a Sith Lord in the years prior to his formal anointing by Marka Ragnos, an erroneous misconception he rarely saw fit to correct due to the respect and prestige the assumed status afforded him. A reserved academic little interested in ostentatious displays of power or influence, he was often described as "quietly intense" by his contemporaries, conducting his affairs with an affable grace and subtle charm that belied his true dark-sided nature and considerable power in the Force. His polite smiles, though frequently lavished upon friend and stranger alike, were more often described as predatory than genuine, and many remarked that the vein of humor in his easy laugh never quite reached his eyes. Raised on the ancestral homeworld of the Sith species, Karos was steeped in the dark-sided mysticism and kratocratic cultural mores of the Sith from an early age. As such, he took no issue with such traditional Sith practices as slavery and ritualistic ''kaggath''s, believing such exercises in krato-magocracy to be simply the way of nature. Though not one to engage in wanton violence or needless acts of cruelty himself, Karos nonetheless shared the ends-justify-means mentality tacitly embraced by his peers and engaged in all manner of sordid acts of mindless brutality whenever ready justification could be provided in light of the desired end. Though possessed of no personal ambition for titles or thrones, Karos was nonetheless vengeful towards those who slighted him or used him to their own ends, often spending decades brooding upon half-remembered slights and nursing petty plans for revenge. Despite possessing the dark-sided sensibilities of his peers, Karos was nonetheless not without positive traits. Like many of his caste, Karos exhibited the characteristic loyalty and dependability for which the Dark Jedi Exiles and their Sith Lord descendants had selectively bred the Kissai for centuries. Though slow to trust, Karos went to great lengths to look after and protect those whom had proven their dedication to him in some unmistakable way, loyally defending his trusted friends and allies regardless of the personal cost to himself. This unshakable loyalty, augmented by means of the Kissai caste's genetic predisposition towards working with others for the good of the group, ultimately manifested itself in Karos's deep-seated collectivist mentality, breeding an aversion to individualism encapsulated both in his seminal work of political philosophy, the Qotaral, and his subsequent formation of the Tsistaralkut during the post–Great Hyperspace War counterinvasion to protect the greater Sith civilian population. This collectivist loyalty to his species was so intense that Karos was ultimately willing to sacrifice his own life to ensure the survival of his people. Karos was often labelled a Light Sith by later historians for his sacrifice during the post–Great Hyperspace War counterinvasion on behalf of the Sith people and for the collectivist tenets of the Qotaral that put the greater good of the Empire above the selfish ambition of the individual. However, Karos took issue with the term, believing that it did not properly speak to the root of his problems with conventional Sith dogma. His issue was not one of disagreement with traditional Sith kratocracy, but rather with the individualism codified in the ''Qotsisajak''. Karos considered himself to be a "kratocratic collectivist" in contrast to more conventional Sith Lords of a "kratocratic individualist" persuasion, a difference encapsulated in his belief that while Force users—"the strong"—had a Force-given right to rule over the Forceless—"the weak"—it was in their interests and in the interests of the Empire to put the good of the entire group before the good of the self. Unlike other Sith Lords who wielded their powers carelessly, Karos displayed a distinct reverence for the Force, considering it more of a mysterious deity to be studied and worshiped than a tool to be wielded at will. As such, he refrained from the casual usage of his prodigious Force powers for such mundane purposes as retrieving items off shelves by means of Force telekinesis or decreasing travel times through Force speed. He believed limiting the usage of the Force in everyday life helped preserve the wonder and awe with which non-sensitive individuals viewed the Force, allowing the wielder to study its aspects and practice spellcasting with the proper respect and admiration the Force deserved. His reverence was based on his belief that the Force was a pseudo-conscious entity that shaped the course of events in the entire galaxy, a theory he first encountered on Tund among the proponents of Rakata Unifiying Force monism. In accordance with such theories, Karos believed that the so-called "will of the Force" was the collective consciousness of the Celestials who had transcended into the Force during the Celestial-Rakata War and predestined all subsequent events in light of a greater purpose. In life, Karos looked for all intents and purposes like any other reasonably attractive Sith Pureblood of highly concentrated Human blood. Though he possessed a legitimate claim of relation to the ''Jen'jidai'' Baron Remulus Dreypa and made frequent boasts as the purity of his Human Dark Jedi blood, Karos was in reality of primarily Tapani Human descent, descended from refugees of House Nidantha who had fled into the Stygian Caldera in the aftermath of the Unification War and interbred with their Sith masters over centuries. As a result of this high percentage Human ancestry, Karos manifested predominantly Human physical features. Though he exhibited the Sith species' trademark florid complexion, crimson eyes,''Star Wars: The Old Republic'' high cheekbones, superficial eye stalks,''Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon'', p. 6 and predisposition towards left-handedness, Karos possessed certain features like five-fingered hands and a distinctly Human nose that betrayed his Human ancestry. In his sporadic post-mortem appearances as a perceivable Force ghost, Karos—like many incorporeal spirits''The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force'', p. 159—generally chose to appear as he most often had in life, clad in his characteristic high-collared, floor-length Sith robes and adorned with his Kissai Sith amulet.''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 24 His visible shade, which generally hovered half a meter off the ground, shimmered with the characteristic blue Force glow commonly evidenced among other perceivable Force ghosts. This same blue glow similarly manifested itself as a visible light emitted from the eyes of physical host vessels he possessed by means of essence transfer, both Korriban zombies and living sentients alike. While Korriban zombies reanimated by means of the ''Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut'' incantation of Sith necromancy''Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side'', p. 43 generally exhibited glowing red eyes by default, the eyes of those reanimated and personally possessed by Karos's spirit shone with a bright blue. Similarly, living sentient vessels Karos possessed—willingly or otherwise—likewise evidenced a slight blue glow from their pupils whenever Karos attempted to wield the Force through them. Like many of the denizens of the old Sith Empire, Karos was possessed of a powerful, above-average connection to the Force greater and more potent than those of Sith active in subsequent millennia. Though dwarfed and overshadowed in the Force by such noteworthy contemporaries as Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, and Ludo Kressh, Karos's raw ability, shaped and refined over many decades' worth of dedicated training and concerted study of arcane rituals, nonetheless rendered him one of the most powerful Kissai priests and Sith sorcerers active during the Golden Age of the Sith. However, his patent disinterest in the acquisition of thrones and titles granted him few ample opportunities to publicly demonstrate his strength in the Force during his lifetime. As a result, only a select few of his contemporaries and peers were fully aware of his potential and the true extent of the power he wielded in the Force. Raised in the traditions of the Kissai priest caste from birth, Karos was immersed in the study of the Force and instructed in the usage of fundamental powers like telekinesis, Force sight, and Force barrier from an early age. A Sith sorcerer by specialty, Karos was proficient in the application of such fundamental incantations of Sith magic as ''Dwomutsiqsa'', ''Sutta Chwituskak'', and ''Odojinya'', offensive spells that empowered him to engage in combat at a distance. Additionally, from an early age, Karos displayed a particular affinity for Sith magic rituals related to the mental manipulation of sentient organisms, exhibiting a talent for powers ranging from simple mind tricks to less conventional ''Qâzoi Kyantuska'' incantations used to invade and control the minds of weaker beings at will. Combined with his skill in meditation trances, this manifested in a predisposition towards the rare Force ability of battle meditation, an uncommon skill empowering the sorcerer to affect the course of battles by inspiring friendly forces to victory while afflicting opponents with horrifying visions of defeat. In addition to combat-oriented incantations, Karos's lifelong interest in the academic study of Force ghosts led him to pursue mastery in more arcane rituals related to spiritual transcendence, including invoke spirits, Force walk, and transfer essence. His acquired proficiency in these advanced rituals ultimately empowered him to persist as a Force ghost himself after death and likewise manifest as a visible shade to the living at will. In addition to conventional Sith magic, Karos was also versed in a number of other Force-mediated fields of study. During his grand tour of the Sith Empire in the days of his youth, Karos studied the varied aspects of Sith alchemy in great detail, cultivating a proficiency in the Force imbuement of corporeal objects and the development and selective breeding of Sithspawn. The latter skill came in handy in later years with his subsequent study of Sith necromancy, a niche sub-discipline combining Sithspawn alchemy with Sith magic by means of the ''Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut'' ritual. During his time among the Châtsûshnwûlkut Tsisottoi Shikkarûjontû, Karos also developed some elementary skill in Force powers used for more furtive purposes, including Force stealth, Force mask, and Force conceal. Though he considered himself ill-suited the subtle art of assassination as traditionally practiced by the Shikkari of the ChTsSh, he was competent enough in these spells to avoid being seen in certain settings if he wished. Though a proper polyglot by the end of his life, Karos was primarily a speaker of the so-called "Sithic" family of languages widely spoken during the Golden Age of the Sith. As a member of the Kissai priest caste born on the homeworld of the Sith species, Karos possessed a native fluency in the Sith language due to its extensive use in rituals of Sith magic and Sith alchemy. As he often interacted with Massassi guards and warriors pledged in service to the Kissai caste, he also possessed a professional fluency in the Massassi dialect. Karos encountered Tundan during his time spent in study on Tund, cultivating a conversational ability in the offshoot of the Sith language spoken exclusively by the Kissai heretics in residence on the planet. Though he favored the use of the Sithic languages in his personal and professional lives, he was eventually forced to cultivate some conversational ability in Galactic Basic upon leaving Korriban to study abroad in the greater Sith Empire. The version of Galactic Basic commonly spoken in the Empire was a somewhat antiquated version of the language originally brought to the Sith Worlds by the Dark Jedi Exiles in the aftermath of the Hundred-Year Darkness. As he was not a native speaker of the language, Karos often faced difficulty in pronouncing some Basic words without a distinctive Sith accent, a fact largely attributed to the presence of certain phonemes in Basic lacking equivalents in the phonetic palette of the Sith language. In contrast to the colorful and often ostentatious style of raiment worn by many Sith Lords during the Golden Age of the Sith, Karos adopted a more severe and unobtrusive form of dress based on the traditional vestments worn by Kissai priests prior to the arrival of the Dark Jedi Exiles in 6900 BBY. He most commonly arrayed himself in perfectly tailored, nondescript Sith robes of charcoal and black colorations, high-collared and floor-length in form. While many Sith Lords of the Golden Age displayed their wealth on their persons in the form of jewels and baubles of solid aurodium,''Lost Tribe of the Sith: Savior'', p. 16 Karos wore only a single unobtrusive Sith amulet around his neck of a style common among Kissai priests. Such a repressed style of dress allowed him to avoid unwanted attention by rendering him invisible at court, hidden in plain sight and lost among the more colorful garments of those around him. In his intermittent participation in armed conflicts, Karos wore alchemically enhanced bronzium armor and a closed-face [[Sith kabuto|Sith kabuto]] of a style similar to that adopted by Naga Sadow's apprentice Gav Daragon. During the Great Hyperspace War, Karos grudgingly donned a Sith Lord's traditional crimson cape''Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 2: Forces in Collision'' at the suggestion of his Massassi executive officer Kazarkasimus as a visual aid assisting his subordinates in recognizing him on the battlefield. Karos was intimately familiar with the use of the traditional Sith lanvarok,''The New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology'', p. 35 a forearm-mounted slugthrower weapon requiring the use of the Force to launch and guide disc projectiles to their intended targets. Like all members of the Kissai caste,''Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide'', p. 16 Karos was trained in the use of this weapon from an early age and demonstrated proficiency in its use mediated by means of his above-average Force sensitivity. He generally wore a lanvarok in place of a left vambrace when donning full bronzium armor, though his prodigious command of Sith magic ensured that it was rarely used in battle except as a last resort. The character of Karos was in large part inspired by Firedance's Sith philosopher Karros and the varied members of Sakaros' namesake family of Sith Purebloods. The author exploited the convenient orthographic similarities between "Karros" and "Sa''karos''" in the development of the character's name, considering it a fitting tribute to both fanon continuities and their respective authors. Additional sources of inspiration for Karos's personality came from the characters of Petyr Baelish from ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', Apocalypse!Michael from ''Supernatural'', Odysseus from the ''Iliad'' (as well as Sean Bean's portrayal of the character in the film ''Troy''), and the film portrayal of the King of the Dead from Tolkien's legendarium. The character's self-sacrificial death during the post–Great Hyperspace War counterinvasion was inspired by the events of the Battle of Thermopylae and the post-credits mission of ''Halo: Reach'' titled "Lone Wolf". The character, originally provided the Sith name "Dzunyâsh" in reference to the Wookieepedia username of linguist Ben Grossblatt,E-mail from Ben Grossblatt on the Sith language was initially developed as an experiment in the writing of a believable, EU canon-consistent immortal Force user similar to the members of the Emperor's Hand. Dzunyâsh was initially supposed to achieve immortality by means of the Curse of Graush, surviving the Great Hyperspace War in a Sith oubliette and persisting for millennia on vestigial Sith worlds like Tund and Thule. However, the idea of a Sith self-sacrificially giving his life for the Sith species during the post–Great Hyperspace War counterinvasion and subsequently achieving spiritual transcendence as a light-sided Force ghost proved to be the more compelling concept in the author's mind. This concept gradually developed outward into philosophical waters after the author concurrently encountered unconventional Force-using factions like the Followers of Palawa, Sorcerer of Tund, and the Jal Shey in EU canon and fanon characters like the aforementioned Karros by Firedance. *''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords'' *''Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 2: Funeral for a Dark Lord'' *''Star Wars: The Old Republic'' }} * Karros on [[Star Wars Fanon:About|''Star Wars'' Fanon, the Star Wars Wiki of fan invention]] * Sakaros family on [[Star Wars Fanon:About|''Star Wars'' Fanon, the Star Wars Wiki of fan invention]] Category:Articles by Sebolto Category:Force ghosts Category:Form I stylists Category:Kissai Category:Males Category:Ninûshwodzakut Category:Philosophers Category:Priests Category:Qoritottoi Category:Sith alchemists Category:Sith Lords of the Sith Empire Category:Sith sorcerers Category:Tsistaralkut